For the past couple of days, I have gotten to spend time with my wonderful girlfriend. And I have been cherishing this time more than normal because I won’t be seeing her for the next three months. Not that I don’t cherish the time I have with her normally, but you can understand why it has been so important to spend as much time as I can with her before she goes overseas to study abroad. I am sitting here in the back of the car on my way home from dropping her off at the airport thinking about how excited I am for her, but also a little sad because I won’t be able to hug her, and talk to her in person for three months. Another thought that runs through my head is, “did I spend enough time with her while I was with her?” What I mean is, was I actually spending time with her or was I staring at my phone eighty percent of the time I was with her?
As humans, we spend so much time on our phones talking to people online, we often forget about the people to talk to right in front of us. As much as I appreciate cell phones and the great things that we can do with them, I have to say that If we completely got rid of them as human kind right now I would not be upset one bit.
It has gotten to the point where people can’t even drive down the road for twenty minutes without checking their phones. It is sad to say that almost every time I get in my car and drive I see at least one person blatantly texting or even scrolling through their Instagram feed. You can’t take a twenty-minute break? Those say texts and pictures will be there when you get out of your car! There are people who put great amounts of money into billboards to remind people to stop texting, but too bad we don’t see those signs for the very reason why they are there. Our addictions to this man made object have become so severe that we stop having concern for others and our own lives. Put it down, look up, and drive!
Texting and driving is not the only problem I am concerned about. There have been many times that I have gotten together with friends, and the only thing we do for an hour is scroll through our phones looking at funny cat videos and pointless pictures of food. I remember when I used to sit around in a group of friends and genuinely talk about dogs, sports, eggrolls, the meaning of life, and any and everything else that we could think about. It never mattered the conversation, or the amount of likes we got for our goofy comments, or whether or not we agreed on everything. We knew that were becoming closer friends by the second. We were developing real relationships with real people. That is what was valuable to us. Now it is rare if I walk into a room in no one is on their phone.
Think about all the opportunities that we miss because we have our nose’s dug into our phones and other devices. I am guilty just as everyone else is. I have been the guy to be sitting in a room of full of people and the only one not talking. And I have missed opportunities to grow closer to friends because of this. I have missed jokes, stories, and exciting things. I have missed out on the beauty of God’s creation all around me. We would much rather take a photo of awesome things than genuinely enjoy them. Because of our addictions to phones, we have forgot about the value of true friendships, and put more value on the amount of likes we get on a tweet. Instead of looking at a beautiful sunset, we would much rather look at hundreds of pictures of them. I don’t think the invention of the phone has ruined us. I think we have ruined ourselves with phones.
The next time you find yourself engulfed in your phone I dare you to put it down. Look up, and appreciate the beauty around you. When you drive, don’t risk yours or another’s life just to look at a picture, or text your friend. Your friend will appreciate you being alive more than getting a text from you. Spend quality time with the people you are with. Enjoy their presence, and get closer to them. You never know when the time you have with your loved ones will run short.
This may be a challenge, but I promise it will be a challenge that will be worth taking. Live life as it was intended. I don’t mean get rid of your phone or boycott the phone companies. But spend less time on it.
Put down your phone and look up. You won’t regret it.
